Build:
Little guide on how i built my RDWC system. Although i fuckin love dwc, when i grow trees on my wilma and oxypots its a constant battle with roots tangling up in probes, pumps ect so just liked the idea of having two pots with plants and rootmass's in so all equipment could be in control res and have no similar issues to dwc grows.
When planning your own design/build you dont need to go this complicated, you dont realy need 4 point entry spraybars or back pressure/mixing valve. But i thought fuck it why not
First i decided i would only need to grow two plants in my room so went about planning layout. Two tubs on back wall and control res tucked up side out the way. Doing it this way allowed me to have room still for my chiller and water butt.
When it came to picking tubs for plants there was no messing about. The black realy useful tubs are bang on for building systems with. Realy strong, good lids and flat walls on the side for drilling through and using fittings on:
I went about positioning tubs where i wanted them and accessed how many elbows and fittings i need to build system. Then when i pictured layout in head i went about fitting the 40mm tank connectors. I fitted three on each tub, front,back and inside to give me a little room to walk down sides of the system.
Measure centre of tubs and mark up ready for holesaw:
Cut them out and deburr all the edges around the freshly cut hole. Little tip do this asap after cutting the hole and the plastic is hot and peels off easier:
Then take tank connectors and insert through holes. I placed rubber washers on outside of tubs. I put some jointing paste around the thread of the fittings then tightend up with hands then give a extra nip up with spanner. Careful not to overtighten them and crush the washers:
I then went about piloting holes for spray bars while i had access to tanks properly. First measured up centre of each side and as high up as i could whithout effecting integrity of tub, popped a 3mm pilot hole through then holesawed em. Deburred same was as tank conectors:
I then went about glueing 32mm - 22mm reducers with little stubs of 22mm pipe on em and pushed em through holes of tub (4 in total):
Glued on my 22mm tee's onto end of stubs of pipe and started mesuring my lengths of pipe for spraybars inside of tub:
Then went about drilling my 3mm holes into base of pipe for spraybars. First i drilled out two holes on each piece of pipe but after filling and testing i put extra holes in. So theres three in total on each longer length of pipe and two on the shorter sections:
Then glued together rest of internal spraybars and went about builing my top header pipe around spraybars. I wanted this in all 32mm pipe to hold more water volume and help distribute equal pressure to all four entry points of the spraybars:
Now with internal spray bars all connected i went about sorting return pipework. Layed pots out in all final positions and started measuring my pipe runs and cutting them to suite. Same as drilling the holes each piece of pipe was fully deburred to allow glue to form correctly on joints and prevent any shit floatin around system and blockin up spraybar holes. Marked centre of lids and cut out where netpot while sit:
Now at this point when all returns where connected to control and both pots i filled up system and checked for leaks.....
There wasnt any
Me being the clumsy twat i am knew i wanted to prevent myself from stubbling around stoned and standing and fuckin up my pipework. So i knew i wanted em boxed in and protected, nothin to professional just some studwork and mdf boardin that could take my weight and be easily removed in future if need be.
So i drilled and screwed studwork alongside my pipework to make support frame and then boarded it all over:
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